AV Interview: Luis Hinojar, Ecler
Ecler’s more than just amps. That said, its current amps are pretty impressive. We get the full story.
14 February 2024
Ecler is a name well known to most audio people in this region, largely for its amplifier products. Headquartered in Barcelona, Ecler has diversified considerably in recent times — loudspeakers, video-over-IP, control products and more – and has now announced it is moving its Australian/NZ distribution to Australis Music Group. At ISE, we caught up with Sales Director, Luis Hinojar, to find out more:
Luis Hinojar: We are very happy to have Australis Music Group on board as Australia and New Zealand distributor for all of Ecler’s audio and video products – the entire range. We believe there’s big potential to increase the business in Australia and New Zealand and we’re confident Australis is a good fit.
AV: Ecler distribution has bounced around in Australia and people may not have a clear idea of what sort of company Ecler is, or how it’s developed. Can you give us a snapshot of Ecler in 2024?
Luis Hinojar: Ecler has been growing a lot in recent years. The launch of a new range of VIDA amplifiers last year has been a game changer – a very powerful product which allows you to asymmetrically distribute the power into four channels, a concept unique to Ecler called VersaPower. Our software-based platform, Ecler Manager, has been joined by the addition of Ecler Cloud – announced at ISE this year – allowing our customers to control our products remotely.
We’re building a family of products – Ecler audio and video – that’s attractive to a lot of system integrators. We are innovative and our products are very solid, which is why we offer a five-year warranty – something you won’t find elsewhere. We’ve been around since 1965 and we’ve learnt a lot over that time. We have experience and a proven track record.
AV: Where do you manufacture?
Luis Hinojar: Barcelona and China. We have our own subsidiary in China.
AV: Where are your R&D efforts being concentrated at the moment?
Luis Hinojar: Most of our R&D efforts are concentrated on software based products. That’s the future. We’ve just brought on six new R&D engineers. That’s the area we’re investing in. It’s very important to accelerate the time to market. We have a clear idea of where the market is headed with the convergence of pro AV and IT, and we are ready to have our own platform for the management of audio and video products, with cloud-based control. We’ll be developing and releasing a full range of products.
AV: What’s Ecler’s video offering like?
Luis Hinojar: It’s not our first foray into video – we had video distribution and switching product back in the 1980s. We have drawn on some of that experience in our current range. Installs, nowadays, generally comprise video and audio and we want to provide audio and video integration – because we have knowledge and experience in both. The system integrator wants to have a single platform to control both and we’re putting a lot of effort into our software platform to provide that – a full solution.
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